by Madi Secareanu | Jun 20, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Creative, Design
Change is inevitable and as your business changes, so will your brand. With a lot of hard work and dedication to your brand, your customers might come to recognize you, your colours and your voice as much as your products or services. Depending on where your business stands you may consider a rebrand or a brand evolution to breathe new life into your brand and reach new consumers. Rebranding or evolving your brand can:
- make it more current
- develop or improve your brand identity
- increase sales
- differentiate you
In recent years there have been several high profile rebranding and brand evolution exercises. In 2011 Starbucks rebranded to support it’s international go-to-market strategy. Note that they removed their name “Starbucks Coffee” from their logo as they are no longer just about coffee. Pepsi is notorious for rebranding itself at least once a decade and Wal-Mart famously up-grated their brand in 2008. What these three brands have in common is not only their size but the frequency with which they rebrand themselves, and the level of familiarity they’ve maintained while appealing to new consumer generations and demographics. They all also have a substantial and loyal customer base and their iconic status no doubt helped make the transition from the old to the new brand more seamless.
* source: starbucks.com
Be cautious though – if you have a growing brand, one that is building recognition and loyalty – a rebrand might not be the right thing to do. Taking away the elements that make your brand top of mind might hurt more than help your growth. But if you feel that your company is ready and could benefit from a rebrand, consider the following:
Why do you want to rebrand or evolve?
Ask yourself the following questions. Are sales low? Is your brand recognition suffering? Is your image outdated? Do you want to reach a new demographic or target market? Make sure that it’s the right strategy to achieve your goals – a rebrand isn’t just about making your brand look nice. It is a risky endeavor but if done correctly, it can help your business tremendously.
Develop a plan and strategy
How are your going to rebrand or evolve yourself? Is it going to be a complete overhaul, just the logo, the positioning or the tagline? The packaging? Moving your business forward requires a plan and a strategy and it doesn’t end with a new look – a new business strategy might require a rebrand and vice versa.
Don’t forget the past
This is key to retaining brand recognition and customer loyalty. The reason why Pepsi, Wal-Mart and Starbucks have been successful was because they didn’t stray much from the past. They were inspired it but they evolved. The familiar elements were retained and improved.
Focus on the future
You may take some elements of the past with you but remember the reason you’re rebranding in the first place – the future. You want your business to grow with the times. Your rebranding efforts should be able to stand up for at least a decade or two. Don’t go with anything too trendy or language that could be outdated. Keep it fresh yet timeless.
Consider your customers
Ultimately a rebrand or evolution is about the consumer. You can hire the best rebranding experts in the world but if your consumers don’t relate, you’ve make a big mistake. You must consider your costumers. How will they respond to your rebrand? Hold a focus group and have them review your rebranding efforts. Do they resonate? Do they still recognize and relate to your brand? Are they more inclined to buy? Then there are also the new consumers, ones that you could gain by appealing to them through your rebrand, the ones that may not be familiar with your current brand.
Just last year we updated the 3H brand identity that included an evolution of our logo, new typography, updated corporate colours and a website redesign. We kept elements of the past – the purple is our brand but the redesign helped us evolve into the 21st century of brand marketing. Our rebranding efforts don’t stop with us, we have helped clients such as Trispec evolve their brand with a new logo, positioning statement and brand visual, Liquid Nutrition with a rebranded vocabulary and Agropur, updating their Aged Cheddar packaging and website.
What elements do you think are essential to a successful rebrand?
by Qing Hu | Jun 15, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive
Is choosing the right tool to create your website a challenge? Depending on your needs and objectives, you could consider a CMS (Content Management System) as it allows you to create, control and manage the content of your web site without any programming knowledge.
There are a variety of open and closed source CMS solutions available for you to choose from. The most common open-sourced options include WordPress, Drupal and Joomla, and closed ones such as Subdreamer, CushyCMS and ExpressionEngine. These tools have a lot of similarities. Hence, it is difficult to decide which one to use.
Here is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages for WordPress, Joomla and Subdreamer.
1. WordPress
The core software of WordPress is built by hundreds of community volunteers. Thus, the most prevailing feature of WordPress is that it has thousands of free plug-ins and themes available for users to download.
Key advantages of using WordPress:
– It’s free, helps minimize your cost for start-up business
– Open-source
– It has a huge user database, drives more traffic to your site
– Allows quick and simple integration with other software packages, you can upload content directly to your website with no hassles
– Search engine friendly. I noticed that search engines love WordPress because a lot of websites displaying on the first page of search engines are built with WordPress. This is because WordPress has many outstanding SEO plug-ins available for users to download.
Comparing with the benefits of WordPress, there aren’t many disadvantages for WordPress, if I had to find one, I would say that WordPress has some security issues. Hacking and spamming seemed to exist and there are many unsecured plug-ins that may cause problem to your website, but these issues can be prevented such as disabling the unsecured plug-ins and installing spam prevention tools such as RECAPTCHA.
2. Joomla
Joomla is an award-winning CMS. Similar to WordPress, Joomla is good because:
– It’s free and open source
– Has a more simple and user-friendly admin interface than WordPress
– Great for large companies because it allows multiple users to edit the site simultaneously without causing problems
– Supports multi-language sites
Similar to WordPress, Joomla also had many highly customizable themes, templates and web modules available. One of the most prevailing features of Joomla, comparing to WordPress, is that the system itself has lots of readily integrated features (such as polls and user control). There are no additional plug-ins need to be installed, whereas in WordPress, a brand new system only contain the most basic features, all other features have to be added through plug-ins. Hence, I believed that Joomla would be more appropriate for large companies, whereas WordPress would be more suitable for small and medium companies.
Some disadvantages of using Joomla include that it is harder to learn than WordPress and it has less plugins (including free plugins) comparing to WordPress. Making changes on Joomla is not as simple as it is on WordPress because changes often require development support.
3. Subdreamer
Subdreamer is an example of good closed source system that also uses PHP and MySQL database. It is 100% rebrandable, it allows you to white label the CMS. White labeling gives the freedom to re-brand the CMS under your own name. It’s a great way to promote your company. Subdreamer also includes its own discussion forum plugin so that you can integrate your website with forums such as vBulletin, phpBB.
The reason why I list Subdreamer as a solution is because it contains most of the functions open source systems has and it is more reliable and secure than using open-source systems because most of the security issues in the open source system come from the free plug-ins that might contain unknown threats to your website. For Subdreamer, every plug-in is made and under the administrative of the Subdreamer’s development team. Many hacking and spamming from auto-generated programs could be prevented.
A typical Subdreamer CMS cost $99.95 USD. Considering this cost, I assume it will be easier to obtain support when you experience problems since the license purchased also comes with 24-hour real human technical support. However, some of the drawbacks of this system is that it will not be updated as often as the open source system due to its nature of close sourcing, only the developers of Subdreamer can fix the bugs and add features and functionality whereas in a free open source system, everyone could contribute the system.
In the process of selecting a CMS, always remember to a research before you decide to invest time and money in it. The main purpose of a CMS is to create a website that is easy to manage. As long as the CMS fits all of your needs, it will be the right decision.
by Madi Secareanu | Jun 13, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
How much of your brand identity do you own? If you really want to find out, run an online search of your brand and see what comes up. Do all pages that represent your brand belong to your brand? When you run a social media search, what comes up? Do all pages, accounts, profiles that represent your brand belong to you?
With the advent of social media, its become increasingly easy for “brand impostors” to steal the spotlight, especially on Facebook and Twitter – and it doesn’t stop at simple tweets and status updates. Some brand impostors go as far as creating campaigns and strategies, robbing your brand of its authenticity and control. Be aware that there is a big difference between accounts and pages that pay homage to your brand and impostors who act and speak on behalf of your brand. It boils down to owning your name, your voice and your customers and avoiding confusion and even legal issues.
A few examples of brand identity theft have been made quite public. For example, during the 2010 BP oil spill, fake Twitter accounts pretending to be BP PR appeared. Yahoo, Facebook, Aston Martin and AT&T have all been targets as well. Brand mascots haven’t been spared either, Mr.Clean, Chef Boyardee and the Pillsbury Doughboy have all been subjects of fake Twitter accounts.
Facebook is notorious for brand identity theft. Just recently I ran a search for 7-Eleven on Facebook and I found two brand pages: one for 7-Eleven, an official page, with 2.2 million likes and one for 711 with 21,000+ likes. It seems only natural in today’s short cut text messaging vocabulary that some 7-Eleven fans would and could search 7-Eleven by typing in 711 on Facebook. Since the Facebook page also looked like an official page, it has garnered significant likes. So will the real 7-Eleven stand up? Is it fair to assume that this page is an impostor… or was it started by an official brand ambassador and abandoned? Regardless of the story behind the two 7-Eleven Pages, or how and why they both exist, a brand needs to take action and ownership to help avoid confusion and reach their consumers and fans in an official way.
So how does a brand protect itself? Here are a few tips:
- Think ahead: Brands must have a strategy and a plan in place to prevent and quickly respond to a brand impostor. Will you make an official announcement about it? Will you go into attack mode? Will you do nothing? Making a strategic action plan to deal with impostors is imperative. Don’t be blindsided.
- Secure your name: A good rule of thumb is to secure all URLs, Twitter handles, Facebook pages and Facebook URLs that are associated with your brand. Even if you’re not using a specific page or account, it’s good to claim it to help protect your brand. Also, make sure it’s clear that you’re pages are official and verify your account on Twitter, if you can.
- Know what’s out there: As I mentioned earlier, keep searching for your brand online on a regular basis. Look for keywords related to your brand or brand name misspellings. If an impostor account exists on a social media site, make sure you report it.
- Take control: Some social media sites allow you to take over impostor brand accounts or pages, merging them and their “Likes” with your official page if you consider it important. Maybe fans or followers were not aware they were following an impostor.
Do you take a proactive role in protecting your brand online and on social media from identity theft? Also, go and Google your brand right now. What did you find?
We want your opinions so feel free to join the conversation on this and other marketing, branding and design topics… you can subscribe to 3H hoopla! here.
by Christine Marr | Jun 11, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Are you going app-crazy? How many apps do you have downloaded on your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android? Surely you’ve contributed to the latest stats that I’ve been hearing… to date, Apple has surpassed 25 billion (BILLION) apps downloaded, and 60,000 more added every month! I probably don’t need to tell you that mobile apps create interactive experiences. It goes without saying that they improve your business’ visibility. Today it’s all about 24/7 access to instant information and location sensitive content. In the not so distant future, mobile devices will replace traditional computers completely.
Being in business (B2B) or having a brand (B2C) there is ultimately one question to answer and deliver on: How do you break through the app clutter?
Well, just because it’s a new channel doesn’t mean you need to throw away traditional techniques. In fact, they are even more important to adhere to. To effectively market your app you must use a consistent, measured approach to best guarantee long-term success. Taking the time to ensure adequate support of the product, considering your market and designing a marketing strategy is vital. Understanding the value of the channel and the media properties you employ is key so that you don’t spend your entire marketing budget in the first few weeks.
Tips to successfully market your mobile app:
1) Build your website: I know it may sound crazy, but make sure your foundation is sound. You may have a great app, but eventually you’ll want to turn that app subscriber to a customer and client, and that takes a solid website ready and positioned to handle incoming traffic and lead generation.
2) Blog and update regularly, connect with like-minded blogs to promote your app. Your profile or company profile for each blog should always speak to your app, with a link to download it now.
3) Be the first! Be unique! It’s tough to be the first to come out with your type of app in an already saturated market , but you can offer an existing concept in a different way or be innovative taking an existing app and making it better.
4) Develop and Implement a Strategy: I won’t belabour this point. Let’s just say Marketing 101.
5) Shout it out! Being first or being unique doesn’t get you anywhere if people don’t know about it. Don’t wink in the dark! Consider a pay-per-success campaign where you are only required to part with money if the advert leads to a direct download. Don’t do it yourself… if you can’t. Enlist the services of a promotional tool to toot your horn to targeted audiences.
6) Build up hype about your app launch: A combined approach incorporating word-of-mouth, viral marketing and advertising is the best way to keep your downloads high and think long-term sustained success by staggering your message.
No shoemakers children here at 3H: Following our own advice, we have a just launched our new marketing app : Hoopla…. download it now! Just click here.
What is your favourite business app?
by Christine Marr | Jun 6, 2012 | Branding, Social Media
It used to be that the purpose of a blog was to state your opinion or viewpoint to those people who connected and linked with you…. so that like-minded people could join in a conversation and contribute to the dynamics of the discussion. This is still true and very relevant today, however as a brand enabler I believe that blogging has taken its rightful place as a viable channel for brand voice. The emergence of the brand blog is very real. In today’s world, brand is no longer only a product… it can be, well, you! We are in the age of personal brand and, like everything else in Marketing, your “brand blog” needs to have very precise and articulated goals for you, the brand, to prosper! The objectives you set should be around increasing your SEO rank so more people can find you. In order to do this, make your objective to increase your page views as this will help you in achieving a stronger position in the internet world of ranking. Once you see your ranking go up, this will motivate you to continue pushing out great content. Be patient while you build momentum. Try to get over 100 daily views and continue to set goals from there.
Boost the power of your brand blog: 12 hours/week to build your brand online presence:
1) 5 hours/week: Your goal is to release one relevant and topical article every week that will generate conversation. Be selective in what you write about, don’t just write about just anything.The subject is important. Follow trends, provide how to techniques on a subject matter, or check a common pain everyone has and offer a solution. Provide resources and offer up list of those for others that have been valuable to you.
2) 2.5 hours/week: It’s not all about you (no!). Network and build relationships, share with like-minded people, comment on other posts and sites and chime in other blogger’s discussion. Social media is about community and blogs are the cornerstone of that community. Keep in mind that this social communities exists because we all help each other. By doing so, you get the added benefit of building your online brand presence.
3) 2 hours/week: Blogging is definitely about speaking up… but you also need to speak out! Spread the word, or rather post! Promote your blog posts to your network, tweet about it and don’t forget to post to social bookmarking sites. Post your article where it is appropriate: Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google Bookmarks, Reddit. Before you publish make sure that your post is keyword-enriched ,that the headline in Google friendly and that you’ve added tags and appropriate descriptions in the back-end of your blog to optimize your views. Once you set up your brand persona and a reputation, you can guest blog on like-minded sites, and return the favour by having them write on yours.
4) 2.5 hours/week: One article a week does not build momentum. To increase the odds of traction, posting 3x a week is ideal. If you feel that this is too big of a hurdle, you could post a link to another blog that you comment on with an intro discussion to the post. You’ll find once you get started and realize the benefits of blogging you will quickly pick up the momentum and writing many posts won’t be an issue. The strategy here is to keep your readers engaged and show them that you are a subject matter expert by researching your content and providing helpful information.
Building a relevant and results-achieving blog isn’t something that can be fit in or done on the side, especially when creating a brand voice (product, service or person!). This is a viable marketing channel that when strategized and measured can reap monumental results. If you can’t achieve this on your own (or if you don’t know where to find those precious 12 hours a week!) there’s no harm in asking for help and outsourcing. Outsourcing doesn’t mean loss of control, just greater sustainability and more precise actions. After all , it’s the least that your brand deserves.
